Elder Neil L. Andersen!!

This week Elder Andersen is coming to the mission to speak to us! The entire mission will be in one stake center. It's gonna be crazy. To prepare, we've been studying all his talks and and reading his book, "The Divine Gift of Forgiveness." It's been incredible. 

This week we had a blast on campus just dividing and conquering, talking to everyone. We were able to start teaching quite a few of them which is awesome! We had some crazy experiences this week especially. I ran into a drunk guy but I've never really met a drunk guy so I didn't really know he was drunk until too far into the conversation. We also met a lady who believes in fairies. Everything's out there guys. 

One of my favorite quotes from Neal L. Anderson: "The sun never sets on righteous missionaries testifying of the Savior." So true! Every time of day there is a missionary in some part of the world testifying of Jesus Christ. Isn't that crazy? 

This week I've been learning to look for the best in others and uplift and motivate them. It's been awesome. 

I know that Jesus loves you and that's why He wants you to grow. Jesus never wants you to coast. If you're coasting you're not taking the steps you need to to change your nature and come back to live with God. And that process is the most liberating experience in life! Make use of the Atonement of Jesus Christ every day of your life! And you will feel God's love for you more every day. 

Love you all! 

- Elder Dahl

Boulders, Studies, Divine Gift of Forgiveness

This week was pretty awesome. We got to do some service at the dome again! We dug some holes to plant some trees and there was a massive boulder. So we got to split it with a sledgehammer! It was awesome. And then they gave us a bunch of treats too.

This week we had 2 incredible days where we found a lot of people-- it was crazy. It's amazing what happens when you talk to random people! 

The hardest part for us is getting people to come to church. For some reason people either forget or are hesitant to come. So we've been working on that. 

I got to go on an exchange again this week which was incredible! I love to serve with other elders because I learn so much from them. 

This week I've been focusing on really making my studies effective and revelatory. I've been using the little free time that I have to study The Divine Gift of Forgiveness by Neil L. Andersen. It's really incredible and has taught me so much about Jesus Christ's atonement. I recommend it for everyone, it helps you to have a healthy view of repentance, turning towards God! 

I love you all, I'm doing well!

Let me know how you're all doing! 

- Elder Dahl

Zone Conference!

In zone conference we had Elder Hunsaker in our area 70 just show up! It was incredible. Here are some of my zone conference takeaways:

• The most worth to me is to declare repentance and help them find joy
• Focus on things that matter
• Have a goal to reach for
• God wants to bless us and wants us to be incredible disciples and the only thing stopping us from that is ourselves! 
• Choose to have the faith to see and perform miracles
• Take complete responsibility for everything I do

I have a lot more but I'll keep it to that!

This week I had a crazy experience. We're meeting with this friend we're teaching and he starts off with saying, "I read 4 chapters of the Book of Mormon!" It was incredible for him and then we start teaching him about the word of wisdom and he says he's not going to follow it, he loves smoking too much. So I tell him we can't keep coming back if he's not willing to try to follow it and he flips out. He starts calling me things I've never been called before and I felt so helpless. I couldn't say anything back otherwise he'd get more mad. We should've left a while before but for some reason we didn't. Anyways, it was a good humbling experience. I'm alright now-- we're not going by him again.

For my spiritual thought, I am really working on being more humble and letting the Lord into my life always. It's been great-- everyone can be more humble and it just makes life so much better! It's a great thing to let God prevail in your life. So I encourage all of you to look into yourself and find ways to give to the Lord and humble yourself before him and watch the miracles come! 

Love you all! 

- Elder Dahl

The Dome and Thelma

Highlights this week: 

A couple decides they want to build a house. Neither of them have any idea how to build a house! So they watch YouTube videos and now they are building a house by themselves with a huge dome in the middle! The coolest part is at the foundation, he has his kids' favorite scriptures so his house is built upon Jesus Christ. And there's a wall in the basement with the handprints and names of everybody who has helped build it. There are a lot of missionaries that have helped. They say they'll house any missionary that comes back to visit which is pretty cool. 

Also someone I taught in Libby Montana just got baptized! It was incredible. She was so excited and ready!

This week we had stake conference which I usually love but this time I was just so tired I did not get much out of it sadly. But I'm excited for February because we have quite a few baptisms scheduled. Hopefully they all go through! 

I'm learning to love street contacting to find people. Like just talking to people on the street. 

This week I've been focusing a lot on what it means to have charity and trying to increase it in all my interactions. It's an incredible gift and it comes as we do our best everyday to remember Jesus and pray for it as well. 

This is going to be a good transfer.

Love you all! 

- Elder Dahl

New Ties!!

I'm not sure if I told you all but I very unfortunately left all my ties except the one I was wearing in my last area which is 4 hours away! So unfortunate. So I've been living off of 2 Goodwill ties. But! My angel mother Sister Amber Dahl and sister Camille Dahl combined efforts to send me some sweet ties! It's been great I feel like I'm able to express myself again. I have some style finally!
Anyways, I went on an exchange this week in another area and I totally loved it! I learned so much about being super genuine with people I'm talking to. So so awesome.

The work is going great I'm excited to apply all the skills I'm learning. We have a couple baptisms scheduled for February which is exciting! I'm learning to really connect with our friends which is awesome as well.

Something I've been studying is leadership and how important it is. I love the emphasis on leading as the Savior would in the talks I'm reading. I'm really trying to learn what that means.

My mission president has encouraged us to prepare a talk a day to help guide our scripture study. I don't always have time to do it, but here is one that I prepared on "Invite the Spirit as You Begin Teaching:"

First interactions are incredibly important
First Lesson:

• Invite the Spirit
• Get background information
• Pray
• Set expectations
• Listen to the Spirit's messages to you

How can you be sure to listen to the Spirit?

• Make sure you are unified with your companion
• Do not think ahead or after the Spirit
• When you receive a prompting, follow it
• Do not wait
• Do not preoccupy your mind with what you're going to say
• Allow room in your teaching for the Spirit to always guide you
• 2 Peter 1:21
• "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of men: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."
• This practice shows God you trust him and his work.
• As we do this, God trusts us with more revelation (2 Nephi 28:30.)
• Do not refer to yourself as an expert, always point out the Holy Ghost as the teacher and that your role is to point to Christ.

Additional Resources:

"Revelation" (Topics and Questions), "Revelation for the Church, Revelation for our Lives," (Russell M. Nelson, 2018)

Anyways that's it for this week! 

Love you all! 

Temple Week!

Hey everyone! This week I got to go to the temple with some other elders in my zone. It was a great opportunity to really understand my purpose a little better and spend some time alone with the Lord.

So... we got to this apartment last transfer and our fridge didn't work! It turns out there was a sheet of ice covering the vents that somehow stopped the fridge from cooling. So we cleared all of that off and we thought we were great handymen. But, the problem has been coming back. So most of the food in the fridge spoiled this week sadly. And we only had 1 or 2 member meals so we were kinda living off the land for sure. But it sounds like we're gonna get a new fridge soon so I'm excited about that!

We found out yesterday that everyone in our house is staying so that will be pretty sweet. We have a good house. 

Oh, we met someone from Kenya the other day and we're teaching him now! His name is Moses and he's so so nice.

One of the things I'm working on is to always be unified with my companion. I've noticed that when you and your companion aren't on the same page, nothing really happens. I've learned that unity comes from humility and understanding not from orders. I've been really trying my best to understand others as Jesus Christ would and I encourage all of you to do the same! 

Also, my ward mission leader served us tacos for dinner the other day which I love! And I grabbed a flour tortilla because I like them better than the corn ones and they totally made fun of me and thought it was the weirdest thing that I preferred the flour ones! It was pretty funny

I'd love to hear what your biggest motivation to be a better person is! I think motivation is so important. 

Keep it up! Love you all! 

- Elder Dahl

Lead with Kindness

Ok so I'll fill you all in on what happened at zone conference last week! It was really focused on using our time most effectively. As missionaries, there are so many people we could be talking to, so we need to make sure we are spending our time with those who will benefit from it most. So we've been really trying to not waste our time with those who aren't progressing. And it's been sweet because it's giving us more time to find others to teach as well!

Speaking of finding, it was sweet this week! I was really trying to talk to everyone we saw, so while we were driving, I told my companion to stop the car, and I rolled down my window in 5 degree weather and started talking to this random lady. She said that she believes the Book of Mormon to be the word of God and that she wants to come to church! It was incredible.

The most effective way for us to find so far is just talking to people on the street. Because most of them are college students, they love to talk to us!

Eating with the members is so awesome. We just have a blast with them, learn about their lives, share a message with them, and then encourage them to come out and teach with us! We've been getting fed a lot of pizza and breakfast food lately.

And In my studies, I've kinda been focusing on how to be a good leader. There's kinda a culture in the mission that you need to be afraid of your leaders and that drives your efforts, but I'm not a fan of that. So I've been studying how Christ was a leader and how he loved those he led and served them. So if any of you have tips on how to be a leader let me know!

College is in Session!

How's it going?

Today all of our area is back to school! College is back which means there will be so many people to talk to my age. I am super excited to grow. I'm learning a lot about being bold and having no fear. I'm also learning how to effectively correct other people. Just learning a lot!

I'm learning to have more faith in everything I do. I'm learning that if you don't have faith in what you're doing it's not effective. It's like fasting without a prayer. It's just not worth it.

Have faith in what you're doing!

- Elder Dahl